This sentence really leapt out at me. Are we looking at the same rainbow disaster screen shots? Windows phone looks like a unicorn puked on a phone.
I don't think it give any compelling reason on it's own for iOS to shift.
For me, the iOS homescreen is too limiting. All an app can do is show its icon and a number of pending notifications. Android is too far the other way- widgets can be far too attention grabbing and obtrusive- silly animations of clouds moving in front of a sun, nonsense like that. WP hits a great balance between the two- widgets/tiles are of a fixed size, and the metro aesthetic means that none are too visually invasive.
I have a Windows Phone that I used as my primary phone for a few months before switching back to Android. The third party support wasn't there and the Maps functionality was dire. But I think that it has the best UI of any mobile OS out there right now- it's genuinely a joy to use. Getting Nokia on board looks to solve the issue with maps, and hopefully this codebase synchronisation will result in more third party developers making quality apps.
We'll see. Well, I won't, because my phone won't run WP8...
Pure unadulterated BS. Carry on.
Edit: The mod down is funny. So "almost every" Android widget has "far too attention grabbing and obtrusive- silly animations of clouds moving in front of a sun, nonsense like that" now? Almost every single one? Because that's what he said. I actually have several Android devices and it is absolutely not true that almost every widget is like that.
And furthermore, who says weather widgets with the sun and clouds and whatever else are silly? There are a lot of people that actually like those widgets and it seems a bit arrogant to condescend their tastes just because you think you know better.
This brand of partisan hate and mod-bombing is why I avoid the comment section on almost every tech site these days.
But the vast, vast majority of apps are not. And that carries through to widgets as well. As I said, I don't know exactly why that is- poor guidelines on Google's party, bad tools, I don't know. But Android is hugely inconsistent.
As far as your question of why Android apps look like crap sometimes I would imagine that devs have an easier time making money in the iOS app store so they make a larger effort polishing the apps that they put in there. Some apps are exactly the same between Android and iOS like Pulse. Some apps have a better iOS counterpart like the Engadget app. And of course, some very similar apps have better Android versions like gReader vs. Feedler.
I have devices that run iOS, Android and Windows Phone and for many reasons, I use my Android devices 90 percent of the time and the 10 percent of the time I use the other stuff it has nothing to do with the quality of the apps.
Part of Apple's strength in their walled-garden is that they have created an ecosystem of design. Google tried to do the same, and enforce style guidelines, to no avail. Seems like Microsoft has created a similar ecosystem that encourages usability.
Yeah, the Android experience is so "tarnished" that the OS ships on almost a million phones a day. Did you ever consider the possibility that the majority of consumers have a different opinion of what is useable than you?
Also, I said "can" tarnish the platform experience, not "will" or "did". Ask a professional designer to compare the general style and branding of the WP, Apple, and Android platforms. They will likely tell you that there is a clear cohesion between Apple apps.
Android ships on an incredible amount of phones because of availability. How many free iPhones do you get on activation? It's a cheap (and good) platform for a carrier and vendors to use. Thus, the volume of Android devices is high. Furthermore, volume shipped has almost nothing to do with usability. How many different vendors have created their own UI for Android?
P.S. I'm not an apple fanboy. I have a Droid X and a Kindle Fire, both rooted and toyed with various ROMs.
There have been many reports here and there about how people like metro. But without such study, anyone saying it looks "good" or "bad" are just worthless anecdotes. Of course it's subjective, what really matters is what the majority of the target audience thinks.
To you, looking at the screenshots, you see a mess of a UI. My me, looking at the home screen my my WP7 I see my Fiance, my brother, my Mother and my Best friend and it toggles between their picture and their latest Facebook updates.
My phone doesn't look like "unicorn poop" to me. It might to you, though.
I imagine Microsoft has data about what people like/dislike about Metro, and they are doubling down on it so the data is probably leaning in the "good" direction.
I'm not a UI expert, so maybe I'm missing something awesome. I am, however, a user of consumer electronics, and as far as that qualifies me to comment, I think it looks like crap and would never buy a Metro UI based product.
This type of criticism doesn't really help, because the vast majority of people seem to think both (metro, and iOS) look fine, if not great. What matters is how usable these phones/OS'es will turn out to be once people start trying them.
I haven't heard anything positive, however, from normal people. Just my experience though.
And what accounts for all of the fawning over the Lumia devices? Those things are terribly ugly in my opinion. Subjective opinion again.